King You of Zhou (795–771 BC), personal name Ji Gongsheng, was a king of the Chinese Zhou dynasty and the last from the Western Zhou dynasty. He reigned from 781 to 771 BC.
| King You of Zhou 周幽王 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| King of the Zhou dynasty | |||||||||
| Reign | 781–771 BC | ||||||||
| Predecessor | King Xuan of Zhou | ||||||||
| Successor | King Ping of Zhou | ||||||||
| Born | Ji Gongsheng 795 BC | ||||||||
| Died | 771 BC | ||||||||
| Spouse | Bao Si | ||||||||
| Issue |
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| House | Ji | ||||||||
| Dynasty | Zhou (Western Zhou) | ||||||||
| Father | King Xuan of Zhou | ||||||||
| Mother | Queen Jiang | ||||||||
| King You of Zhou | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Posthumous name | |||||||||
| Chinese | 周幽王 | ||||||||
| Literal meaning | The Quiet King of Zhou The Secluded King of Zhou | ||||||||
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History
editIn 780 BC, a major earthquake struck Guanzhong. A soothsayer named Bo Yangfu (伯陽甫) considered this an omen foretelling the destruction of the Zhou Dynasty.
In 779 BC, a concubine named Bao Si entered the palace and came into the King You's favour. They had a son named Bofu.[1] King You deposed Queen Shen and Crown Prince Yijiu. He made Baosi the new queen and Bofu the new crown prince.[2]
Queen Shen's father, the Marquess of Shen, was furious at the deposition of his daughter and grandson Crown Prince Yijiu and mounted an attack on King You's palace with the Quanrong. King You called for his nobles using the previously abused beacons but none came. In the end, King You and Bofu were killed and Baosi was captured.[3]
After King You died, nobles including the Marquess of Shen, the Marquess of Zeng (繒侯) and Duke Wen of Xu supported the deposed Prince Yijiu as King Ping of Zhou[4] to continue the Zhou Dynasty. As the national capital Haojing had suffered severe damage, and was located near the potentially dangerous Quanrong, in 771 BC, King Ping of Zhou moved the capital eastward to Luoyang, thus beginning the Eastern Zhou dynasty and ushering in the Spring and Autumn period which would last for more than 300 years.[5]
In literature
editIn the traditional Mao Commentary to the Classic of Poetry, the minor court hymn "Gather the Beans" (采菽; Cǎi Shū) is said to be a criticism of King You for squandering feudal lords' respect and humiliating them.[6][7] Even so, this interpretation is disputed.[citation needed]
The Records of the Grand Historian states that Baosi did not laugh easily. After trying many methods and failing, King You tried to amuse his favorite queen by lighting warning beacons and fooling his nobles into thinking that the Quanrong nomads were about to attack. The nobles arrived at the castle only to find themselves laughed at by Baosi. Even after King You had impressed Baosi, he continued to abuse his use of warning beacons and lost the trust of the nobles.[8][9] The earliest warning beacons appeared in the Han dynasty, and this story is considered to be fabricated.[10] According the Xinian, carried by the excavated Tsinghua Bamboo Slips, King You of Zhou attacked the Marquess of Shen, who allied with the Quanrong to defeat the royal army.
Family
edit- Queen Shen, of the Jiang clan of Shen (申後 姜姓), a daughter of the Marquess of Shen; the mother of Crown Prince Yijiu
- Bao Si, of the Du lineage of the Qi clan of Bao (791–771 BC), a daughter of Du Bo; married in 779 BC; the mother of Crown Prince Bofu
- Crown Prince Yijiu (太子宜臼; d. 720 BC), ruled as King Ping of Zhou from 770 to 720 BC
- Crown Prince Bofu (779–771 BC)
Ancestry
edit| King Yi of Zhou (d. 878 BC) | |||||||||||||||
| King Li of Zhou (890–828 BC) | |||||||||||||||
| Wang Ji of E | |||||||||||||||
| King Xuan of Zhou (d. 782 BC) | |||||||||||||||
| Shen Jiang of Shen | |||||||||||||||
| King You of Zhou (d. 771 BC) | |||||||||||||||
| Duke Xian of Qi (d. 850 BC) | |||||||||||||||
| Duke Wu of Qi | |||||||||||||||
| Queen Jiang of Qi | |||||||||||||||
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Revised Chinese Dictionary, Ministry of Education, Taiwan
- ^ Sima Qian. Records of the Grand Historian. Vol. 4.
- ^ Cambridge History of Ancient China,1999, pages 546 and 551
- ^ Bamboo Annals
- ^ Phương Thi Danh (2001), Niên biểu lịch sử Trung Quốc
- ^ Classic of Poetry, Minor Court-Hymns, Decade of Sang Hu, "Gather the Beans"
- ^ Mao Chang (毛萇) (?) / Mao Heng (毛亨) (?), Zheng Xuan (鄭玄), Duan Yucai (段玉裁), 毛詩故訓傳定本 (Maoshi guxun zhuan dingben) "vol. 6"; p. 179 of 208, quote: (《采菽》，刺幽王也。侮慢諸侯，諸侯來朝，不能錫命以禮，數徵會之而無信義，君子見微而思古焉。)
- ^ Sima Qian, Shiji, "Basic Annals of Zhou"; quote: (褒姒不好笑，幽王欲其笑萬方，故不笑。幽王為烽燧大鼓，有寇至則舉烽火。諸侯悉至，至而無寇，褒姒乃大笑。幽王說之，為數舉烽火。其後不信，諸侯益亦不至。).
- ^ Giles, Herbert A. (1912). The Civilization of China. Tutis Digital Publishing. ISBN 81-320-0448-5. Chapter 1
- ^ "资讯_凤凰网". news.ifeng.com. Retrieved 2023-04-10.